Kids TV could be temporarily split on Freeview

Digital UK has confirmed that children's channels may be split across two parts of the Freeview channel list following the launch of Kix.
Children's channels on the UK's terrestrial TV platform are allocated Freeview channel numbers in the range 120-129. A significant number of children's channels have launched with restricted coverage, with POP and Kix currently only showing in local TV coverage areas, and timeshift channels POP+1 and Tiny POP+1 available in Greater Manchester only. With Kix being allocated channel 127, POP+1 and Tiny POP+1 have moved to channels 128 and 129. This means all slots in the 120-129 range are now full, although some Freeview viewers only have access to an handful of these services.

As a result, any children's channels that want to launch on Freeview in the next few months will allocated an overflow slot between channel 96 and 99, with a bookend (slate) appearing on channel 95.

The move may not be required if no further children's channels are launched before proposals on reuniting the children's section, due to be put to broadcasters and consulted on soon, are implemented. Once the genre is reunited, Digital UK would tag any channels that have launched between 96 and 99 on to the end of the current group of children's channels.

Back in October 2014, when we had the last big genre reshuffle, it was deemed that 10 channels for Children's would still be enough given the relative stagnation of the genre since 2006. There had been recent additions of the BBC HD channels and Pop - giving five Children's channels total at the time - but five more should have been plenty to go on.

The addition of five more channels in the past 18 months can hardly be called a lack of foresight.

Always easy to say in hindsight they lacked the foresight. Perhaps moving CBBC HD and CBeebies HD would be the better short term solution but moving news to 140 ASAP must now be on the agenda. HD seems to have ground to a halt for now.

That's until UHD services if any (!) or utilising Freeview play services. We currently have a under utilised 200 section. Text services have depleted and VuTV, or other MPEG-IC services have closed in the last 12 - 18 months. So a Kids, channel 23, News and 200 section reshuffle is needed? Probably after the Olympics like 2012? BBC B mux - what's happening there?